Bracket for support of hand railings for bathtubs



July 18, 1961 G. H. TlSDALL 2,992,799

BRACKET FOR SUPPORT OF HAND RAILINGS FOR BATHTUBS Filed July 11, 1958 IN VEN TOR. GARNET H. TISDALL BY M A TQRNE United States Patent 2,992,799 BRACKET FOR SUPPORT OF HAND RAILINGS FOR BATHTUBS Garnet H. Tisdall, 1120 Bedford Road, Grosse Pointe, Mich. Filed July 11, 1958, Ser. No. 747,903 1 Claim. ('Cl. 248-71) The invention pertains to means for support of rails which are mounted horizontally in a bathroom upon the wall or walls thereof adjoining a bathtub. The rails serve as safety means for use of persons who may steady themselves by grasping such a rail or rails.

The improvement is directed to a bracket which includes a threaded bolt adapted to be anchored in a wall of the bathroom, and an assembly associated with the bolt, the assembly including a head portion for engagement with a rail and a hood which is known as an escutcheon. The hood may be ornamental and is disposed between the head and the wall on which the bracket is mounted.

The object of the invention is to provide a bracket which is composed of a minimum of parts, and in which the parts are of such structure that they may be easily and quickly assembled, requiring no tools other than a screwdriver. More specifically, once the bolts have been threaded or otherwise secured in the wall on which the brackets are to be mounted, the head and hood assembly adapted to be supported by a respective bolt may be applied thereto in a matter of seconds.

I shall now describe my improvement with respect to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of two adjoining walls of a bathroom, the view including a corner portion of a bathtub, and a perspective view of the railing mounted on the walls by means of my brackets;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of my bracket;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view on line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a perspective View of the head member of the bracket;

FIG. 5 is a back view of the head and hood assembly as seen from line 55 of FIG. 2.

Similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

The bracket includes a steel bolt having a rear portion 12 tapering to a point 11, said rear portion of the body of the bolt being threaded, as shown in FIG. 2.. The bolt, which for the sake of strength may measure approximately half an inch in diameter, is designed to be threaded into a hole in the bathroom wall 13 upon which the rails are to be mounted. However, the front portion 14 of the bolt is to be left projecting from the wall for engagement with the head and hood assembly above referred to. For this purpose said front portion of the bolt is provided with an annular groove 15 to which I will refer again.

The head of the bracket, generally identified by numeral 2%, is best made of cast metal. It consists of a drum-like member 16 of a diameter to embrace a rail 29, a tubular, integrally-formed neck 17 which extends from the drum-like member radially, and a tubular shank 18 axially extending from the neck portion but of a reduced diameter so that a shoulder 19 is formed at the junction of the neck and said shank.

The shank has the form of a hexagonal prism, as best shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. The inner diameter of the ice shank and that of the neck is just large enough for engagement with the front end of the bolt 10 which is to fit into the interior of the shank 18 and the neck 17. The latter is provided with a threaded, radial hole 20 for reception of a screw 21.

Forming a part of the assembly with said head 24 is a hood or escutcheon, generally marked 25. It is a hollow member having the shape of a truncated cone which is open at its base 26 and which at the top includes a flat wall 27. Integrally formed with the wall is a bushing 28 extending from said wall towards the base of the hood, the interior surface of the bushing being angular to correspond to the angular outer surface of the shank 18. For assembly, the angular shank is fitted into the bushing in the direction from the upper wall 27 towards the base of the hood for a frictional engagement with said bushing. The particular relation between the shank and the hood is best shown in FIG. 3. It is this assembly of the hood 25 and the head 24 which forms a unit for ready application to the bolt which may be regarded as another component unit of the bracket.

To mount a rail, such as rail 29, upon a wall 13, first the wall has to be drilled for reception of the bolts 10. A bolt is threaded into each hole to such a depth as to leave its front portion 14 projecting outwardly from the wall for application of said head and hood assembly. All that remains to be done is to mount. the shank over the bolt in such a manner that the bolt will enter the interior of the shank 18 till the annular groove 15 will be in register with the hole 20 in the neck 17 of the head 24, while the base 26 of the hood will bear against the outer surface of the wall 13. At this. stage the screw 21 is to be threaded into the hole 20 for engagement of the inner end of the screw 21 with the groove 15 in order to prevent disengagement of the head and hood assembly from the bolt.

After having described my improvement, what I wish to claim is as follows:

In combination with a bolt secured in a wall of a room and having a front portion projecting therefrom, said portion being provided with an annular groove, a railholding head spaced from the wall, the head having a cylindrical aperture extending at right angle to the bolt, a hollow neck extending from the head in the direction of the wall and having a radial threaded hole therein, a polygonal shank integrally connected thereto in the form of a prism extending axially from the neck and having an axial bore therein, the front portion of the bolt extending through said bore into said neck till the annular groove of the bolt is in register with the hole in said neck, a set screw in said hole and in engagement with said groove and a cone-shaped escutcheon axially mounted upon the shank, the escutcheon including a bushing in frictional axial engagement with the shank while the outwardly flaring base of the escutcheon bears against the wall of the room, said bushing having the same polygonal shape as said shank to slidably and cooperatively engage said Shank i References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

